Rantburg

Today's Front Page   View All of Wed 05/28/2025 View Tue 05/27/2025 View Mon 05/26/2025 View Sun 05/25/2025 View Sat 05/24/2025 View Fri 05/23/2025 View Thu 05/22/2025
2017-03-25 -Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
NOAA study shows as US drilling surged, methane emissions didn't
[NOAA.gov] A new NOAA study shows that methane emissions from the United States did not grow significantly from 2000 to 2013 and are not likely to have been an important driver of the increase in atmospheric methane levels observed worldwide after 2007, as other studies have suggested.
The other studies were racist gassist.
The paper, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres on March 24, provides additional insight into a question that has puzzled scientists for the past decade: What has been causing the increase in global methane levels since 2007?
Sorry. It was the bean burrito.
To examine whether U.S. oil and gas development could be playing a role, NOAA scientist Lori Bruhwiler and an international team of scientists analyzed methane levels in air samples collected by NOAA aircraft around the U.S. They did not find evidence of large increases in methane emissions.

"Our results show that U.S. methane emissions have likely grown at a very slow rate," said Bruhwiler, the lead author of the paper. "Other scientists have proposed that large increases from the U.S. are a significant contributor to the global increase, and we just couldn’t find evidence of this from our measurements."
Goddamn Vegans
Methane levels on the rise

Globally, methane levels in the atmosphere grew from the 1980s, when measurements began, to about 1999. Methane levels flattened between 1999 and 2007, and then resumed their growth at a time that coincided with an historic surge in U.S. oil and gas development activity. Several published studies have sought to draw a link between the increased the U.S. oil and gas activity and increases in global methane levels.

The question of whether U.S. fossil-fuel-sector methane emissions are on the rise is important because of the potential that new extraction technologies used here could be exported to exploit unconventional oil and gas reserves around the world.

Natural gas, which is composed primarily of methane, is regarded by some as a transition fuel between coal and renewable energy sources because natural gas, when burned, produces about half the carbon dioxide emissions of coal, according to the U.S. Energy Information Agency.

A potent greenhouse gas

Methane is also the second largest human-caused contributor to global warming after carbon dioxide. Though not as abundant as CO2 in Earth's atmosphere, methane is much more potent - with 28 times the warming influence of CO2 over 100 years. Because of its global warming potential, methane leakage must be limited for there to be a climate benefit in switching from coal to natural gas.

Other recent studies – including two based on the analysis of satellite estimates of atmospheric methane -- have suggested that U.S. methane emissions rose by up to 30 percent from 2002-2014. Bruhwiler and her team of researchers performed a thorough analysis of the satellite data used in the previous studies and could not identify evidence of a large increase in emissions from that data. Bruhwiler's analysis of data from aircraft sampling across the U.S. also showed no trend of large growth in emissions.

NOAA scientists have contributed to several other recent studies that point to a biological, rather than fossil fuel, source for increasing global methane levels. A paper published last year found that the growth in atmospheric methane was likely due to large increases in emissions from microbial sources such as wetlands, livestock, waste and rice agriculture, especially in the tropics.
Seriously though, methane is a gas we do have to watch as it is a very good greenhouse gas. Unlike CO2...
Fortunately, it is fairly easy to keep emissions under control and doesn't cost a lot to do so.
And no... farting cows aren't a major source. Pig farms, however are.
Posted by DarthVader 2017-03-25 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11135 views ]  Top

#1 Methane levels flattened between 1999 and 2007, and then resumed their growth at a time that coincided with an historic surge in U.S. oil and gas development activity.
Posted by phil_b 2017-03-25 03:32||   2017-03-25 03:32|| Front Page Top

#2 farting cows aren't a major source. Pig farms, however are.

Now I understand the love affair between the left and Islam.
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2017-03-25 03:35||   2017-03-25 03:35|| Front Page Top

#3 Methane levels flattened between 1999 and 2007, and then resumed their growth at a time that coincided with an historic surge in U.S. oil and gas development activity.

The flattening coincided with G Bush's global program to reduce methane emissions, and rose when Obama cancelled the program.

But then Bush understood the science.

Classic fake news, as they can not identify the real reason. And the fact the USA has had 8 years of a scientifically illiterate president.
Posted by phil_b 2017-03-25 03:40||   2017-03-25 03:40|| Front Page Top

#4 USA has had 8 years of a scientifically illiterate president

He's literate in other things?
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2017-03-25 03:54||   2017-03-25 03:54|| Front Page Top

#5 A new NOAA study shows that methane emissions from the United States did not grow significantly from 2000 to 2013

Consistent with the USDA cattle inventory cycle monitoring
Posted by al aSha-med 2017-03-25 05:19||   2017-03-25 05:19|| Front Page Top

#6 He's literate in other things?
Posted by Seeking cure for ignorance 2017-03-25 06:53||   2017-03-25 06:53|| Front Page Top

#7 I blame Beano.
Posted by ed in texas 2017-03-25 15:22||   2017-03-25 15:22|| Front Page Top

17:38 Lord Garth
17:29 alanc
17:09 BrerRabbit
16:13 Pancho Poodle8452
16:08 Beavis
16:08 Lord Garth
15:52 Lord Garth
15:28 trailing wife
15:26 Pancho Poodle8452
15:26 trailing wife
14:34 Frank G
14:28 Melancholic
14:27 NoMoreBS
14:14 swksvolFF
14:12 swksvolFF
13:54 mossomo
13:51 mossomo
13:50 NoMoreBS
13:50 Abu Uluque
13:44 Abu Uluque
13:41 NoMoreBS
13:39 Abu Uluque
13:36 mossomo
13:36 swksvolFF









Paypal:
Google
Search WWW Search rantburg.com